Inside an estimated 280 million households countrywide waiting for the beneficial South-West Monsoon despite all its associated problems — floods, traffic jams, collapsing houses and water-borne diseases — the month of June is a time of hectic activity. Parents have to get the world’s largest cohort of school-going children (260 million) ready for the new academic year 2024-25. After the six-eight weeks summer vacation when school and school routines were forgotten, it’s quite a task for parents and children to get back on track without stress and anxiety. This is the time for last-minute purchase of school uniforms, bags, arranging for school transport, signing up children for co-curricular activities and planning weekly lunch and snacks menus. It’s self-evident that smooth and efficiently planned school routines have a positive effect on children’s learning outcomes. Nor is there a shortage of research indicating that children who follow structured home study routines to supplement school learning, experience less academic stress and anxiety. Therefore even as the country awaits a bountiful monsoon and a new government at the Centre, on the eve of the start of the new academic year 2024-25, we present a detailed guide to parents to enable them to create conducive and supportive home learning environments for youngest citizens. This requires parents to prepare home study timetables and routines, and inculcate good and effective study habits to reinforce children’s classroom learning. Our cover story also includes a valuable guide by well-known Vellore-based pediatrician Dr. Gita Mathai on ways and means by which parents can ensure a healthy and fulfilling new school year for their children. Parents are unlikely to find a more useful advisory to plan a low-stress, productive and enjoyable home study environment for the new academic year. As usual, our timely cover feature apart, there’s other expert advice from child development professionals in this monsoon issue of ParentsWorld. Check out our Adolescence essay in which Kolkata-based career strategist Poulami Sarker provides a practical ten-point guide to enable secondary school-leavers to smoothly navigate the process of making informed career decisions. Also a Special Essay by Prof. Elise Waghorn of RMIT University, Australia which provides valuable advice on how to safely introduce children to bad news and current affairs in the media. Moreover, I highly recommend our exclusive hot-off-the-press Book Excerpt from Get Kids to Play (Notion Press, 2024) authored by learned sports education professionals Saumil Majmudar, founder of the Bengaluru-based Sportz Village, and Vijay Krishnamurthy, sports scholar and executive coach with 25 years global experience in tech design and management research. For parents of a video-reels obsessed generation on the fast-track to transform into couch potatoes, they provide useful advice to motivate children to play, starting this year. mer issue of ParentsWorld. Check out the Early Childhood essay in which Gurgaon-based pediatrician Dr. Himanshi Kashyap shares valuable advice on managing temper tantrums in youngest children. An Adolescence essay by Delhi-based child psychologist Dr. Priyanka G. Halwasiya warns against online dating dangers. And the protein-deficiency myth of vegetarian meals is…
